The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder

The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder

What makes this show "fairly odder" is the fact that it is a live-action/animated Nickelodeon sitcom, which is what fans didn't expect.

Genre:	Fantasy Comedy Sitcom
Running Time:	24-25 minutes
Country:	United States Mexico (animated segments)
Release Date:	March 31, 2022 - February 2, 2023
Network(s):	Paramount+
Created by:	Butch Hartman Christopher J. Nowak
Distributed by:	Paramount Global
Starring:	Audrey Grace Marshall Tyler Wladis Ryan-James Hatanaka Laura Bell Bundy Imogen Cohen Daran Norris Susanne Blakeslee
Seasons:	1
Episodes:	13
Previous show:	The Fairly OddParents
Next show:	The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish

"Hey, remember that live-action Fairly OddParents spin-off that was basically just a generic Nickelodeon sitcom but with FOP characters? Yeah, me neither. Literally everyone forgot about it."
— Sir Simon A. on Twitter

The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder is an American live-action/animated television series based on Nickelodeon's The Fairly OddParents, intended as a reboot of the series. The series premiered on Paramount+ on March 31, 2022, one day after the original series' 21st anniversary.

Plot

When Timmy Turner grows up and goes to college, he leaves his childhood fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda to his younger cousin Vivian "Viv" Turner and Roy Raskin, her new stepbrother.

Why It Is Fairly Odder Than The Original Show, In a Bad Way

Rebooting The Fairly OddParents in form of a hybrid sequel is very unnecessary, as seasons 9 and 10 already killed the original show.
- While doing a reboot of The Fairly OddParents isn't the worst idea in the world, doing so in the form of a live-action/animation hybrid sitcom that takes place in the future isn't exactly great either, since fans were hoping for an animated continuation of the series. Sound familiar?
Despite being a sitcom, it does a very bad attempt at being funny, and the humor is a big downgrade compared to the first eight seasons of the original series and probably even worse than the last two seasons of that series.
- There's an unfunny running gag where Roy and Viv defeat Vicky, and she pretends to be dead, but then they check her body to see if she's really dead, and upon that, Vicky lets out a fart, ugh!
The show itself is basically reduced to a bunch of filler as well. In other words, if you remove Cosmo, Wanda, and Jorgen von Strangle, replace the theme song, remove the FOP-related textures and change the names and designs of Denzel Crocker, Vicky, and Timmy, then it would look just like another generic Nickelodeon sitcom, or even a The Fairly OddParents parody series.
Butch Hartman's art style clearly doesn't translate very well into a live-action and animation hybrid show, as Cosmo and Wanda look like cardboard cut-outs that were simply cheaply pasted onto camera shots without trying to blend them into the scenes, hence making them stick out like sore thumbs on the live-action footage. This is best exemplified when, during a scene where the camera slightly pans over to the right after Viv wishes for a new room, Cosmo and Wanda move along with the camera instead of staying in the exact same place.
- While bringing back the original creators/producers of the original show for a reboot is usually a good sign, this one seems to be the exception, as bringing Butch Hartman back to the series was a very questionable idea, considering how much controversy he's caused over the last few years, ranging from the OAXIS scandal, and scamming Kuro to art theft via tracing, mocking Mary Kay Bergman's death, believing that autism deserves to be cured, although it was never a disease in the first place, and so on, along with being partially responsible for the original series' downfall. Granted, most reboots, like The Powerpuff Girls (2016), Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go!, etc., are terrible, due to the lack of involvement of the original creators, but in this case, just like Ben 10 (2016), and even Teen Titans Go!, the reboot here is terrible, due to Butch Hartman disregarding all the stuff that made the original series good before its decline.
For establishing shots of locations, like the school, 3D models are used, they look terrible and fake-looking, as if they were taken from an early Xbox 360 game.
The animation in the animated segments, most notably the scene with Denzel Crocker in Fairy Jail, is a ridiculous downgrade from the original show and even the Flash-animated season 10 episodes, as it looks very low-quality, choppy and stilted, and is also inconsistent. It honestly looks more like a fan animation than an actual The Fairly OddParents media. Including with Jorgen not standing right and when Mr. Crocker goes to his cell, his hands magically appeared on the bars instead of being animated. Another example is Timmy missing his buck teeth in a few shots during the animated intro in the first episode. Likewise, there's some clipping errors like Crocker's head clipping through the bars for example ^[1].
- The animated character redesigns look awful, and don't resemble their original counterparts at all, mostly notable Crocker, who, for some reason, now has two ears right in the neck, and young Timmy Turner, who as mentioned before, is missing his buck teeth.
- This is because the animation was done by Boxel Studio, a small animation and visual effects studio in Tijuana, Mexico by one person, that was forced to do it without help with very little time, which may show how cruel Butch Hartman, or Paramount, was with the team.
Like the last two seasons of the original show, most notably season 10, it tries too hard to be modern and hip by using popular internet trends. For example, one of the episodes has the characters using ClikClok, an obvious spoof of TikTok, and doing the floss dance. Another example is Cosmo knowing who Olivia Rodrigo is, or even about Hamilton, played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
For some reason, the theme song always appears eight to ten minutes into the episode, rather than at the beginning, which is very bizarre. Wouldn't it make more sense if the song showed up after a 1-2 minute cold opening segment (akin to ICarly, Victorious, Henry Danger and many other Nickcoms) instead of halfway through the episode?
Just like the last two seasons of the original series. Butch Hartman and the writers also continue to ignore, or abandon any continuity, regarding Da Rules from the earlier seasons of the original series, as they go along, showing that they didn't learn anything from the criticisms of the later seasons. For instance, Timmy is shown in the first episode to still know about his fairies' existence, yet he is all grown up by now, and is supposed to have had his memories of his godparents erased.
- The worst part about this is the fact that this sequel series completely contradicts the ending of "Channel Chasers" again. Instead of following the ending of said special, where Timmy's memories were eventually erased once he became an adult, and his godparents were assigned to Timmy's son and daughter, this sequel series instead has Cosmo and Wanda assigned to Timmy's cousin and her stepbrother, who were not once seen, or mentioned at all whatsoever in the original series. Although the last part can be excused since this is supposed to be a reboot, and some liberties are taken in regard to the original continuity.
This sitcom has some of the most horrific production values in Nickelodeon history. For example, an episode shows to the public a "terrifying monster" named Codzillard, a parody of Godzilla, that attacks a cardboard city and scares people, which is actually a cheap knock-off of Godzilla's costume from Godzilla vs. Kong's merchandise and the claws are from the blue raptor from Jurassic World, but instead of a big and monstrous lizard-dinosaur head, they used a latex fish mask to make the head, which shows that the creators were too lazy to create a unique, and original costume for the show.
Surprisingly, apart from being assigned as Viv and Roy's fairy godparents, and granting wishes for them, Cosmo and Wanda don't serve any significant purpose in the episodes, as they barely interact with their godkids. Compare this to the original series, where they serve as parental substitutes for Timmy, due to his actual parents being neglectful.
- Not to mention, despite showing clips from the original series' various episodes in the first episode, characters, such as Cosmo and Wanda's son, Poof, and Timmy's dog, Sparky, are neither seen nor mentioned. Again, this can be excused, since this is a reboot of the series, and the fact that Sparky is hated, but one of the clips seen in the montage was taken from "Wishology!", which was made long after Poof's birth.
Similar to the modern Nickcoms, most of the acting is very mediocre. Additionally, Cosmo's high-pitched voice is still annoying to listen to, just like with seasons 9 and 10 of the original cartoon.
Most of the new characters, both main and supporting, are bland, generic, and useless, some of which are just carbon copies of older characters from the original series. For example, Zina, Viv's best friend, is obsessed with Roy, making her a lazy clone of Tootie, who is obsessed with Timmy.
- The characters themselves aren't that great either, since Viv is just a blank slate of a character, and Roy is excruciatingly annoying.
- Also, Viv, Timmy's cousin, and one of the main characters, doesn't really deserve to have fairies as, similar to Chloe Carmichael, she seems to have a pretty decent life, when fairy godparents are normally assigned to miserable children, and her being too nervous to move into Dimmsdale serves as a very weak excuse for her to have fairy godparents.
For some reason, the show decided to make Vicky and Mr. Crocker a romantic couple, which is rather creepy and disgusting, as despite Vicky growing up into adulthood by the events of the series, Crocker is still 26 years older than her.
The laugh tracks in this series are irritating, and way overused, even by Nickelodeon sitcom standards.
The special effects are also terrible and fake-looking as well, even by Nickelodeon TV show standards, as whenever Cosmo and/or Wanda cast a wish, an onomatopoeia-filled text box just appears, which was probably meant to capture the aspect of the original series, but it just comes across as lazy.
While the theme song is okay, the other soundtracks are mediocre, and are also inferior to the original show just like the animation. It ranges from forgettable at best to nerve-pulling at worst.
- It doesn't help that, unlike Butch Hartman's previous works, Guy Moon is surprisingly not involved with the music at all.
Like the last two seasons of the original series, the writing can get incredibly lazy at best, and downright atrocious at worst. Examples include Jorgen giving Timmy permission to show his fairies to Vivian, despite the fact that it's against Da Rules otherwise; it doesn't help that this is the third time Timmy was given random privileges that allow him to break Da Rules. Another example is that Cosmo and Wanda are often off-screen being occupied with something else, just so Vivian and Roy can't unwish their wishes, and to artificially extend the show's run time, which is about the same thing as them losing their wands.
Ironically, the show actually won the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for favorite kids TV show, despite the fact that the reboot was already critically and negatively panned by critics, fans, and audiences, which makes Nickelodeon extremely hypocritical as well.
Sequel-baiting: Just to add further insult on the show's downgraded writing, in "Back to the Scooter", Roy even implied there will be a second season to the reboot. However, the show does not even need a second season, considering the fact that the show is already getting canceled, being removed off of Paramount+, and a CGI-animated reboot being leaked. Due to all of these reasons, The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder is already bad enough to the point where it nearly killed The Fairly OddParents! franchise permanently, until a CGI-animated reboot was leaked, in which that reboot looks a lot better than this. This also proves that the writing is just as bad, if not worse than the last two seasons of the original show.

Redeeming Qualities

Although combining animation with live-action sitcom didn't work very well, Cosmo, Wanda, and Jorgen are animated in the same style as the original series, as opposed to the live-action movies, where they used CGI models for Cosmo and Wanda, and made Jorgen live-action, and their voice actors reprise their roles, and still do a great job voicing their characters, except for Daran Norris as Cosmo.
- Carlos Alazraqui also reprises his role as Mr. Crocker in the episode "Fairies Away! Part 1" and "Fairies Away! Part 2" and surprisingly even plays his live-action counterpart, which is a rather nice touch, and still does a very well job voicing him, and playing him.
There were actually some decent ideas hidden amongst the dirt, such as Vicky as a teacher finding out about the existence of fairies, through discovering Mr. Crocker's old room, and documenting what he found out about them, and this reminding her of the strange events, that happened, while babysitting Timmy in the original show, but it wasn't used to its full potential.
The theme song can be catchy, and okay.
Some of the acting is passable, such as Audrey Grace Marshall as Viv Turner, Ryan-James Hatanaka as Roy Raskin, Rika Ghosh as Cassidy, and Mary Kate Wiles as Vicky.
Despite this show being completely unnecessary, it is great to see The Fairly OddParents! on TV after five years.
As mentioned above in WIIFOTTOSIABW #20, the CGI reboot coming in 2024 under the name of The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish might be an improvement, over the reboot we got, despite the bizarre and janky animation for Cosmo and Wanda.

Reception

The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder was panned by critics, viewers, and fans of the original series alike, with many questioning why the show was made, as seasons 9 and 10 already tainted the original show's legacy; some fans even considered the reboot to be worse than the aforementioned last two seasons of the original series and even the live-action movies.^[2] It currently holds a 2.6/10 on IMDb^[3] and a 67% on Google.^[4]

Trivia

In the Latin American Spanish dub, and unlike with the original series, when the dub was made in the U.S. at Miami, Florida, this one was done with voice actors from not only Miami, but also from Mexico, Chile, and Peru.
- This is because The Kitchen Inc., the dubbing studio, since 2021 is having more collaborations with actors outside Miami.
On January 30, 2023, it was removed from Paramount+, most likely due to the negative reception that it received.
Another reboot came in 2023, Nickelodeon & Paramount Global applied to register "The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish" with the USPTO under several NICE classes. A screenwriter (Alec) from season 9 of the original series confirmed a new project was in during development in 2024.